Paragon
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: One universe has lost their paragon, and another has gained an unlikely shinobi. Elsewhere, a lone jedi has been brought back from the brink of death for reasons unknown and now, she teeters perilously on the brink. United against a common adversary, can these unusual allies somehow survive the coming storm? May the Force be with them both. NarutoxBarriss. Possible Harem?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Just an idea that popped into my head; we know that countless jedi were slain across the galaxy thanks in part to Palpatine-asshole!-and his treachery. We've also seen countless fics were some jedi survive. My question is this: have we seen a fic where Barriss survives? Addendum: have we seen a _crossover_ fic where she sur**

_"By the Force...who is he?!"_

_~Bariss Offee._

**Paragon Lost**

Barriss Offee couldn't pin down shen she fist felt the disturbance in the force, only she did. One moment all was well upon Felucia; the next, it wasn't. The Separatists had been routed, their battle droids were being driven back, decimated by the scores. Victory was theirs and thus the one-time padawan and knight of the Republic, led her men on a triumphant charge out of the undergrowth and into a clearing.

That was when she first felt it; dozens, hundreds-no, thousands of deaths in the force. _Jedi._ They were gone. Not so much as having vanished, nor had they disappeared, either. They'd simply ceased to exist. Because they were dead. Barriss froze, her lightsaber falling from her fingertips and rolling across the earth to be lost in the verdant grasses of Felucia.

She scarcely even noticed it.

Their sudden abscence, was like a physical a wound in the Force, terrible and horrible, aching everywhere. Recently knighted though she was,the Mirilian jedi stumbled in confusion; staggered, battered and bereft by the sudden and unexpected loss of her friends and allies slain on words leages distant, and yet the pain was so powerful it nearly forced her to her knees.

_"Execute Order Sixty-Six."_

She froze as a voice pulled her from her misery; her head breaking the surface of her sea of doubt just in time to register the miniscule holoprojector in the clone trooper's handl displaying the minute likeness of a cloaked figure. That voice...where had she heard it before? She shook it off seconds after and misery was hers once more.

She never even heard the words:

"It shall be done, milord."

Bariss Offee could not quite say when it was that she died, only that she did. All was well one moment, the next, she felt the white-hot flash of a blaster bolt slam into her back and that was that. She pitched forward, reeling, pain searing across sides and stomach. Another bolt struck her. Then another. And another. She couldn't breathe, couldn't blink, couldn't bring herself to look over her shoulder, and in the eyes of her killer. She toppled forward into the grass and knew no more. In that instant as her lids slid shut, she never began to suspect they might ever open again.

But they did.

They opened to blinding light. It was everywhere. Surrounding her, enveloping her. Was this the Force? Had she become one with it in death as she sometimes had in life? She lay there for a moment and basked in it, the awesome power of life itself a being too massive for her to fathom.

Slowly, the currents swirled and took shape before her, forming a figure Barriss both knew and likewise cherished; the svelte form of Luminara Unduli.

"Master?" Barriss balked at the figure; for it was indeed her master parsecs distant on the forest world of Kashyyk. She knew at once that she'd passed on; her ghostly ethereal appearance was not of this world. So that meant...she, too, must be dead as well. So be it, then. She was sorrowed by her sudden and unexpected end, but she was willing to accept it, so long as she was here with her master-

_"Your time is not yet finished, Barriss."_ her mentor's words came suddenly, to her as if on a breeze, though her mouth never moved. It was like watching the wind, reaching for something you couldn't grasp, yet knowing its existence all the same. She was left in awe by it, but also, confusion.

"Master, I don't understand."

_"The Force has a plan for you yet, a plan which does not involve your death."_ The jedi master strode forward even whilst she spoke through their shared master/student bond. _"You must live, Barriss. That is why I am here. You must live and you must learn from the mistakes we've made. Take heed for your visions, but beware the Dark Side."_

"But-

Luminara Unduli said nothing more; she simply reached down and laid hands upon Barriss, touching the raw and blistered flesh of her former padawan's stomach. Barriss felt the life-energies of the Force, flowing through her master and into her, welling up inside her. It was as if she was a glass and had only been half-full untill now; only capable of unlocking half her true potential and prowess. Her mouth worked wordlessly, lips forming a ragged oval.

"Master...

Luminara's dark lips quirked in a small, sad, smile.

_"May the Force be with you, Barriss."_

And then the light was gone. She was falling, falling from the tapestry that was the force, plummeting through the black at a breakneck pace that left her mind befuddled and disoriented, falling falling falling forever...

* * *

Blue eyes burst open.

Barriss gasped as life returned to her body, her hands flying to her stomach, the very same place where her master had first touched her; alarmed to find that though the fabric was seared and torn, the skin beneath, was as whole as it'd ever been. A trooper must have noticed her sudden ressurrect; because someone shouted and suddenly, the massive, forward-facing guns of an AT-TE (Short for All-Terrain Tactical Enforcer) swiveled towards her. For a moment, the knight froze, indecision, rooting her in place.

What were the clones doing? Why were they attacking her? She reached for her lightsaber but her hand closed on empty airs and the massive machine's barrels, tracked with the movement. _By the force,_ she realized, _they're really going to do it. They are really going to-_

"Fire!" ordered one of the troopers.

Bariss braced herself for the fire and the flame...only, there was no fire. Even as the republic AT-TE opened fire, Bariss Offee heard a sickening crunch of metal, followed by a deafeaning explosion. Barriss flung an arm before her face as a wall of wind slammed into her, lifting from her feet and hurtling her across the clearing.

Where the AT-TE had been, there was only a smoldering wreck; black smoke belching from the ruinated metal, mingling with the fire and the flames. Bodies lay scattered about; some unmoving others, just beginning to rise from the wreckage of what must've been a spectacular explosion

"Attacking an unarmed civilian isn't very nice, ya know?!"

Barriss's head whipped back and forth like a puppet severed from its strings. The voice seemed to come from everywhere, at once; above her, beyond her, _behind her_ and the forest at her back. She balked as hail of-where those knives?!-fell from the sky like rain, descending upon the troopers with deadly precision, piercing their durable armour as though it were made of all but tissue paper.

As if that weren't enough, there were the sounds:

There came the sharp staccato of blasterfire; a susuration of whispers rising and falling amist the screams and shrieks of the dead and dying, an eerie crescendo that would likely haunt her nightmares for some time to come.

And above it all rose a sound Barriss had come to know and respect, yet now one she feared. The sound of a lightsaber. Her lightsaber.

She'd dropped it in the confusion and now it blazed bright in the hands of another. A man. Rough locks of deep and vibrant gold shaded a whiskered viasge so fierce that she flinched at the sight of it. His movements were fluid yet clumsy, graceful and awkward those of a trained warrior; albeit one who'd never so much as handled a lightsaber in his lifetime. And...yet... despite of that, or perhaps in spite of it, he held his own.

He spun like a top, deflecting each shot with rapidity, but no control. It would have been laughable, were the situation not so terribly dire. He was just one man, and more and more clones, were bringing their blasters to bear upon him. How could one so unskilled possibly deflect so many bolts?

And suddenly, there were others. Barriss blinked, certain she'd sustained a concussion; because they looked exactly like him; because each held the visage of her saviour, down to the slightest detail.

He stood amongst these countless others, each, a flawless duplicate of himself, right down to his attire; loose, fitting slacks, sleeves and a dull, mud green flak jacket. His blue eyes burned like stars behind her lightsaber, his mouth set in a grim line whilst he took to the fight to the clones, hacking and slashing and stabbing into those very same men who'd been under her command only a few minutes before. They set upon the clones with an almost frantic fervour, strike and cut with those odd knives of theirs, whilst the original_-or at least she assumed him to be-_fumbled with the blue beam of her lightsaber, spouting curses all the while as he struggled to deflect the occasional bolt that came her way

"The hell do you work this thing?! Screw it!" He roared like a rancour and bounded forward, his speed transforming that blue-white blade into a figure eight as he attacked. Within minutes, they were dead. Men who had fought under her, died for her, served and obeyed without thought or need or hesitation...gone. Just like that. She glanced about, stunned by the death and the blood, shocked to feel...relieved. Her stomach churned. These men were dead and she felt relieved!

Relieved!

She felt like a youngling all over again; she didn't know what to say, what to do, or even what to think! This man, had saved her. Come from out of nowhere to pluck her from the depths of despair, and she had no words for him. She didn't even know who he was!

Her saviour made a gesture with his good hand and his dopleganger army vanished, dissipating into so much smoke. Barriss balked at the sudden display; where had they all gone? He turned towards her with a sigh, his blue eyes like winter skies, all too confused, and far too cold for her liking.

"You alright?" he asked.

Barriss managed a nod.

The man grunted, but made no move to extinguish the ligthsaber. He glared at her. Glanced at the clones. Back to her. Back to the clones again. Back to her. She felt his emotions through the force; fear, anger, confusion, sorrow, overcome by an old and overwhelming sense of loneliness. And there, _there_ just a touch of Force sensitivity. Barriss processed all of these things in an instant and understood them as he strode towards her, lightsaber sizzling through the air like something alive.

"Which brings me to my next question." He made no effort to slow. "Where are we?"

"Felucia." She gave the answer numbly, uncaring.

"Never heard of it." he frowned, shrugging. He'd reached her now, looming over her like some forsaken deity. Blue eyes cold and black blazed out at her.

"Next question.

He thumbed her head up with the blue blade, its tip sizzling just beneath her chin. His eyes were chips of diamond sapphire, glittering in the setting sun. Barriss, could feel the heat of the blade-her blade-searing into her skin, but even so, she found herself nearly guffawed at what came next.

_...where the bloody hell is Felucia, and why the devil is your skin **green?"**_

**A/N: Whatever might Bariss's destiny be? And Naruto with a lightsaber but with no idea as to how to use it...I just found that amusing. "How the hell do you work this thing?!" How indeed...or more importantly, how did he wind up in the Star Wars universe to begin with? Will other jedi be saved? Or will Barriss be the only one? You'll have to stay tune for the next chapter of...**

**...Paragon Lost!**

**The idea struck me after reading The Good Left Undone by Darth Malleus. The man is a brilliant writer and more than once I found myself laughing out loud. **

**Then I wondered...what might've happened in a different situation, were a different Naruto, to encounter Bariss Offee as opposed to Aayla Secura? Granted, I have no intentioning of copying the format of Darth Malleus, but it inspired me, his idea did, to try one of my own.**

**Naruto isn't quite a badass in this fic as he is in that one, but hey, he'll have his moments. Just to clarify he still has all of his shinobi war abilities; control of the Kyuubi, Sage Mode, Rasenshuriken, etc, and might, perhaps be a tad force sensitive.**

**I've a fair idea of where I want to take this, but I just wanted to get this out there between updating Dark Side of the Moon and my other fics.**

** I suppose this is the result of that finished product, ne?**

**And so, in the immortal words of Darth Vader...**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny!**

**R&R! =D**


	2. An Ally Gained

**A/N: Just an idea that popped into my head; we know that countless jedi were slain across the galaxy thanks in part to Palpatine-asshole!-and his treachery. We've also seen countless fics were some jedi survive. My question is this: have we seen a fic where Barriss survives? Addendum: have we seen a _crossover_ fic where Aayla survives, but both Aayla and Bariss? Nope, didn't think so!Someone recently informed me of Bariss's actions i.e. betraying the jedi in the Clone Wars cartoon, and let me just say this...BUNK! That has nothing to do with this story! I don't even accept that cartoon as canon anymore! It's gotten so far off the beating path its not even funny! And with that...**

**...onto the next update!**

_"Darkness hides the horrors that the day can bring."_

_~Darth Sidious._

**An Ally Gained**

All across the galaxy, jedi were extinguished in droves.

Caught unawares by the sudden and unexpected betrayal, few-if any-were able to defend themselves against their former comrades. They were cut down in droves, from snowy mountains of Mygeeto to the lush forests of Kashyyk and the dreary grasses of Saleucami; even the the jedi temple on Coruscant did not escape the purge.

Aaayla Secura was one of the lucky ones. Miles away in the jungle, the jedi knight felt Bariss vanish from the Force a heartbeat before her own clones brought their blasters to bear upon her back. A splitsecond warning might not have been enough for most beings, but for a jedi? More than enough.

"It shall be done, my lord."

_My lord?_

She had time for this thought and no other.

Aayla reached for her waist belt and seized her lightsaber before the nearest clone trooper-a sergeant-judging by the green markings on his armor-raised his blaster. It was a BlasTech SE-14, a deadly pistol that packed the highly concentrated beam power of an energy rifle into a weapon half the size. Aayla knew her body couldn't sustain so much as a single shot from a blaster like that. Thankfully, she didn't have to.

Before the sergeant, who was carefully lining up his shot, could fire, she activated the blade.

_Vzzzzm!_

With a fierce electronic growl, the energy shaft surged forth, as if eager to be free after all this time. Aayla swung the blazing blue blade once, then reversed the stroke, deflecting the sergeant's first shot with ease and grace bespoken of years of training, sending the bolt screaming off into the jungle. Before the sergeant could comprehend his failure the twi'lek spun and struck-slashing, and melting a hole in his armor. She felt rather than saw the trooper fade from the Force as his head toppled from his shoulders; rolling across the forest floor to rest at the feet of his comrades.

To their credit, his clone comrades only hesitated a heartbeat before opening fire. By then Aayla had already leapt.

She let the Force wash through her like a wave, an invisible cascade that carried her out of danger and in a long arc toward the jungle canopy. The remaining troopers fired repeatedly, bolts of blue lambent energy that Secura, guided by the Force, batted away with her weapon. None came close.

Aayla didn't slow until she'd reached the uppermost levels of the wizzened trees; only then did the twi'lek dare paus for breath.

Despite her momentary victory, Aayla knew this battle was far from won. The clones_-and there were a fair number of them remaining-_blocked her escape. Normally even ten-to-one odds would pose little challenge for a fully prepared jedi immersed in the Force. But Aayla was not prepared. Her mind was still reeling from the knowledge that somehow-someway-the clones under her command had betrayed her. She felt no evil inteintion from them; they truly felt they were doing their duty by eliminating her, that it was their _right_ to end her life. It...rattled her. She didn't know how to comprehend it. She simply couldn't. And she didn't have time to.

One of them pointed upward at her.

"There!" he shouted. "In the trees! In the_-gack!"_

Aayla almost sighed as her flung lightsaber smacked back into her palm, still humming from its abrupt end to the trooper's life. The remaining nine locked onto her positon and opened fire but to no avail; now that they had been divested of the element of surprised, the clones were no match for her _or _her aware of their treachery the clones were

When the deed was done she disposed of the bodies in the thick foliage and bounded back into the treetops. It wouldn't be long before the others came to investigate the squad's abscence.

Time to move.

Despite the energizing effects of the Force, she was still far from her peak fighting form. She had no compunctions about running if possible; the jedi teachings stressed practicality over bravery. But to flee into the dark of the forest in her condition would be futile. The troopers would cut her down like a ripe bantha if she turned her back. No, there was only one way out-through them.

Was it so wrong that the thought of cutting down her former comrades pained her?

Even as she readied herself, even as she prepared for one final stand the Force startled her-screaming in unrelenting aogny; sending her reeling. Death. Dozens-no-hundreds of them. Each life a jedi, snuffed out in the blink of an eye through betrayal and treachery. A cacophony of crying voices screaming as one, their deathly knell serving only to deafen and disorient her.

It didn't take Aayla long to realize what the Force was trying to tell her. This aching emptiness, this empty abyss welling up in her heart...more jedi had gone to the void. Master though she might have been she still felt their deaths, felt it in the very core of her being. She could feel the dark side at work, rejoicing in their demise and it sickened her to the core.

_No..._

Her hand trembled; a cold, dark feeling quivered in her lungs. She nearly dropped her lightsaber, nearly fell from her perch in despair. And then she felt it. Like the rising sun sweeping aside her fears and dispelling her doubt with warm rays of joy and happiness. Indeed, the Force itself was rejoicing, celebrating at the sudden and unexpected return of one thought to be lost.

_Bariss._

She could _feel_ Bariss in the force again, burning like a whitehot brand in the back of her mind. A light that'd been seemingly extinguished mere moments ago, only to be restored just as swiftly. How?! It was as if Bariss had become one with the Force, and yet Aayla could sense her friend's prescence clear as day. And there was another. Someone she hadn't sensed before. The newcomer shone brighty in her sixth sense like a veritable supernova, radiating with otherwordly power. Not of the light, nor dark, just_...grey._

Whatever it was, this second prescence was close, closing the distance rapidly. As if it could sense her. As if it-he?-knew where she was. Aayla bristled; knowing Bariss was alive had only served to galvanize her resolve she refused to allow this newcomer to take her captive or who knew what else. resolve.

_Thud-thud-thud..._

A pair of AT-TE's and AT-RT's lumbered towards her from the north and the south, their massive barrels tracking for any sign of movement. The twi'lek bit back a grimace of anger. She could move neither up nor down, Aayla realized. Neither forward or back, not with this strange force hurtling towards her. She was trapped, like a bug in a bottle.

But this bug could sting.

The clones were almost upon her now, directly beneath her. Any longer and her window of opportunity would be gone. Aayla assumed a fighting stance, raised her lightsaber, and gave herself fully to the Force. Holding her breath and whispering a prayer, she began to step off the bough-

**BA-KRAM!**

A sudden explosion caught her unawares at the last instant as she dropped; Aayla risked a glance over her shoulder just in time to witness the rear-most walker erupt into an orange fireball. Debris sprayed in directions left and right, most of which she warded aside with her blade as she plummeted to the forest floor. There was a flicker of motion in her peripheal vision, and Aayla thought she saw something_-someone-_streaking toward another off the walkers a golden blur in the night.

Then she was amongst the clones and there was no more time for thought.

The force was an invisible cataract that carried Aayla in its grip, bearing her as lightly and easily as a fish through water. She surrendered to it, as she'd learned to do long before, letting it guide and direct her, letting it move her in offensive and defensive actions far faster and more precise than her conscious mind could have executed. The clone's blasterfire ricocheted furiously from her lightsaber in blinding flashes, the energy bursts dissipating harmlessly into the earth and evening sky.

But there were so many. Too many. Another explosion signaled the destruction of the final AT-TE, nearly rocking her back on Aayla heels, nearly shattering her concentration. Flames lit the night orange with their glow, affording the Jedi a brief but precious glimpse of the unseen attacker. His body seemed to shine like the sun, and she caught a glimpse of blonde hair and blue eyes before that saffron spectre ripped a trooper from the nearby vechile and flung him into the treetops.

"That's what I _love_ about being underestimated," His voice drifted across to her from the smoke, "They. Never. See. You. Coming."

He turned to face the AT-RT's and opened his hands, cradling a sphere black as the night. With a sly smile he flung it forward.

_"Bijudama."_

The world erupted.

Mud was the blood of the earth, gushing from the wound inflicted by its attacker's invisible hammer. A ferocious tide slammed into Aayla, threatening to knock her off her balace and for the first time since arriving upon this forsake world, she was actually grateful for the intense heat of the muck below her feet. Blood, bits of armor and cloth_-even a smattering of dead bodies and force knew what else-_rained across the floor, blinding her to anything, everything else. her ears rang with a deafening _crrrraaaaack_, follwed by a secondly enormous explosion. Blood spattered her face, the surface of the floor itself roiling against her legs and even without sight Aayla Secura knew something had happened.

Even as she looked on, she saw it. So did the clones.

A smoldering ruin remained where the two scout vehicles once stood.

_By the Force!_

Even with the stranger's aid, there were simply too many. For every clone she cut down, three more arrived to take its place.

There was one slight chance of survival, she realized: if she could perform a Force leap over the troopers, she might stand a chance of retreating into the night. It would have to be perfectly-flawlessly-executed, and the danger was that her adversaries were well familiar with this move, having seen her perform it countless times on a hapless battle droid. But if she succeeded she might be able to find Bariss and-Force willing-escape off this blighted planet. What happened next was anyone's guess, but that was neither here nor there.

Even as these thoughts crossed Aayla's mind, however, she was springing toward five of the armored soldiers each of whom seemed to balk at the sheer recklessness of her charge. The unexpected move worked to her advantage; evidently her former soldiers hadn't expected this particular action. Aayla leapt, let the Force carry her, let it shift her weight and torque her muscles, spinning her so that when she landed she was facing all of her foes. Her technique was flawless; she lit, perfectly balanced, on a nearby bough, lightsaber at the ready.

The troopers, taken by surprise, swung around and began firing wildly in her direction. Aayla felt hope blossom within her as she deflected bolts while backing up. The safety of Felucia's forest lay only a mere five meter behind her. If she could just reach it-

_Sithspit!_

A curse slipped through her lips as a blaster bolt grazed the outside of her thigh, sending fingers of fire shooting up and down the leg, creating a momentary lapse in her concentration. That was all it took. A second bolt seared mere centimeters from the tip of her right lekku; a third slammed into her right shoulder, rendering said arm useless. A second explossion sent her tumbling backwards, finally depriving her of her balance. Aayla was not aware of her scream as she fell. Dimly, as if from a great distance, she felt the Force roil in sudden turmoil, like a placid pond struck suddenly by a stone.

She could hear shouts of surprise from her enemies, could hear the deadly hum of another weapon, the crackle of its discharge was oddly familiar.

When someone touched her mind with the Force, Aayla almost recoiled in surprise.

_Bariss?_

A blur of green and black interposed itself into existence between her and the barrage, weaving its _lightsaber_ into a warding pattern that blocked the energy bolts loosed at them as its owner reached out with the Force and let it enable them, let it do what only a jedi could. Hold the line. With her last, fading spark of awareness, Aayla Secura realized help had finally arrived.

Too late.

Bariss screamed something, and in the black haze creeping across her vision, Aayla thought she heard a name.

_Naruto?_

Not that it mattered.

Aayla could feel herself beginning to succumbing to exhaustion and her wounds, it took all she had to remain conscious. Her vision was growing dim, the sounds and sights of combat falling away to blackness. She was falling. Fading. She'd done all she could. Now it was time for her to rest. Yes, rest. After fighting for so long, didn't she at least deserve that. Of course she did. There was no death. There was only the force. Would she become one with it when she passed, she wondered? Perhaps.

Perhaps not.

Just then, as she felt herself begin to slip into the eternity that was the Force, a pair of arms closed around her like a vice. Something dragged her back from the brink and held her fast, dangling her over the precipiece between Life and Death by a spider's thread. In that instant her life flashed before her eyes. All that she'd done. All that she'd yet to do. And then...something else. In that sweet, blessed instant her eyes beheld futures seen and not yet seen, some of which involved the strange blond man she'd met mere moments before.

The Force spoke to her then like a long lost friend, imparting a simple message upon her.

**It is not yet your time.**

Words could not hope to describe what Aayla felt in that instant, nor would she ever feel it again.

_"Oh, hell no."_ she heard a voice speak to her from across space and time, _"Don't you fucking die. After all the trouble we just went through to save you, you do not get to die. Do you hear me?!"_

Aayla tried to open her mouth to speak, but words refused to emerge. A pair of dazzling red orbs hung before her vision, drawing her in. Pouring strength into her broken body. It hurt. By the Force, did it hurt! Looking back, she might've compared to being struck by sith lightning; her every pore pined with pain and agony as her wounds were forcibly closed, tattered tissue mended through an accelerated proccess she could not bring herself to understand. All this happened in an instant's time. The blink of an eye. Life returned to her bones and body, air flooded her lungs with a pained gasp.

Aayla opened her eyes to find Bariss and the blond man standing over her and knew at once the battle was over. Even with her pain-addled senses she didn't detect any clones nearby. She could still hear his heartbeat thrumming gently against her ear; at this moment she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and go to sleep, pretend this was all a terrible, horrible dream. But this was no dream. She knew this, and yet, it did her little good, gave her even less comfort to know how close she'd come to death.

"Bariss...?"

"It's alright, Aayla." The padawan smiled softly, her slim shoulders sagging as though she'd just been relieved of a heavy burden. "I'm here. We're both here." She favored the blonde with a small smile, making little to no attempt to hide her palpable relief.

"You can let go of her now, Naruto."

The whiskered warrior arched an eyebrow at the remark, but relented all the same. Slowly-tentatively-he lowered her to the ground and let her go. Aayla murmurred her thanks, the tips of her lekku curling in embarassment at having been caught in such a vulnerable position. She honestly couldn't recall when she had even been held by a man-wait. Why was she thinking such things? Now was _not _the time for that! Flushing, the twi'lek reluctantly allowed the blond to help her to her feet.

She wobbled unsteadily, it was only with his assistance that she was able to stand.

"Who are...?"

"As I told the lovely green-skinned lass over there earlier," he shot Bariss a sly look, which the latter returned with a frown, "The name's Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto. Longtime genin, container of the Kyuubi, and first sage since the Rikudo Senin." With a grin that could charm the stars out of the sky, he took her hand in his and to Aaayla's actual dismay-delight!-kissed it ever so softly.

"Nice ta meet'cha, m'lady."

Abruptly, his smile turned dour.

"Now, perhaps _you'd_ care to tell me why everyone's been shooting at us, hmm?"

* * *

**A/N: And Aayla survived! I just couldn't bear to let her die after reading everyone's reviews. So, Naruto had now almost singlehandedly rescued two jedi thus far. Palpatine's gonna have a serious reckoning coming his way at this rate! But just how did our favorite shinobi find himself flung into their universe, in the first place? He's obviously strong enough to obliterate tanks with ease, as I made quite clear with that Bijudama. You'll have to stay tune for the next chapter of...**

**...Paragon! And be sure to let me know what the pairing should be!**

**I've a fair idea of where I want to take this, but I just wanted to get this out there between updating Dark Side of the Moon and my other fics.**

** I suppose this is the result of that finished product, ne?**

**And so, in the immortal words of Darth Vader...**

**...REVIEW! It is your destiny!**

**R&R! =D**


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